AFR 103
The City in Africa: Nairobi and Johannesburg
Last Offered Fall 2008
Division II Writing Skills
Cross-listed HIST 103
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Accra, Nairobi, and Johannesburg are three major African cities with very different origins. In each of these cities African, Asian, Arabic, and European cultures have converged and intermingled in complicated ways that give rise to hybrid cultures, economies, and politics. This seminar will trace the development of these cities from the 19th century to the present. The experience of various groups of city dwellers will be our main focus, as well as the development of the cities’ physical infrastructure like transportation, housing, trade, and labor networks. More importantly, though, we will explore the underworld of these cities and will, with the inquisitiveness of a voyeur, the zeal of a private investigator, and the sensibility of a historian, examine ways in which class, race ethnicity, nationality, politics, and gender have influenced the structural growth of these cities and the experiences of their inhabitants. Students will also get a chance to read about the various artistic movements in these cities over the last century, focusing especially on music, theater, and street performances. Students should emerge from this course with a greater awareness of African urban life and with a deepened understanding of colonial and postcolonial societies in Africa and elsewhere in the so-called Third World.